It was one of 'those' days but full of laughter which is surely the only way to survive when a particular taxi company spends almost an hour assuring you that a taxi is on the way, only to confess to your angry Flemish man when he finally phones them on your behalf, that they have messed up.
They never quite reached that confessional point during my two phone calls to them.
After talking with Gert, I phoned them back just one more time with a considered opinion on how much I 'appreciated' them making sure that Tara (aka Paris Parfait) and I missed out on our planned visit to a rather special antique shop here in the city.
The best of the day was surely our lunch at my favourite restaurant here in the city ... de Manie is a lovely place to sit down and catch up on news of the crazy busy-ness that is both of our lives.
Tomorrow is exploring Antwerpen ... I'll let you know how that goes.
Meanwhile Tara has put together a rather interesting post on Republican voter suppression.
I think your husband knows how to yell better in Dutch :P Besides your New Zealand wit totally outsmarted them and they had no idea you were mocking their bad service.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice Diara time :)
Oh they knew I wasn't mocking them, Manic. I write of it politely here but I was furious over the phone - less mocking, more pure anger over their stupid lies.
ReplyDelete'The taxi will be with you in 20 minutes' said the woman who took my call. I phoned back after 30 minutes, allowing for the fact that my experience of Belgian taxi service has been the worst experience of any country I've been in the world. Istanbul, example, has customer service that would make these guys ashamed.
The guy said, 'Oh, the taxi is on his way, he'll be 5 or 10 minutes'. Hmmm so that's 40 minutes. I phoned Gert after 10 minutes and asked if he could get them to stop lying because perhaps they didn't understand English.
He phoned back, having phoned another taxi company who said they had no one for 45 minutes ... (welcome to Antwerpen) and said that what the Berchem company couldn't explain in a truthful way was that they didn't feel like picking us up to take us to our appointment, they just seemed more comfortable to continue with their lies.
There was no mocking from me, Manic, just pure fury at having a guest left standing on the street because the taxi service was so appalling.
And to think I initially accepted it because I have adjusted to the appalling service here.
We don't have a taxi culture here in Belgium, I wonder how that happened :P
ReplyDeleteNow I wanna see you mad :D You must be adorable then :P
I once called an Antwerp company requesting to be connected with their customer service dept.
ReplyDeleteI appeared not to exist - to put insult upon injury, they laughed right in my face.
Welcome to Belgium ;-)
Hah, I'm not adorable mad, I dislike getting mad. I'm horrid, Manic.
ReplyDeleteYou can imagine, Peter - Tara said she was going home with an improved idea of France's service industry and she never expected that could happen.